Power Hour Review: The Dwarf Run

The Dwarf Run is a very interesting game because its very existence represents a desire in the gaming community for a return to early point and click adventure games. When I was growing up, Realmz was my absolute favorite game. Realmz is a fantasy adventure RPG only developed for the Apple and passed around as shareware. It set the bar for RPGs for me, and it forever impacted my tastes in video games: the way I like to hoard items, the top-down view I prefer, the way I like stories to unfold but for the action to be dominant. I would LOVE for Realmz to be remade, or for a game like Realmz to be made again. While I didn’t play a ton of point and click adventure games when I was young, I totally can see the pull of a game like The Dwarf Run being made.

One of the most interesting things about The Dwarf Run is that it is made by a solo developer, Alexander Mirdzveli. In the game, you and your team (no female team members, unfortunately) travel through dungeons and fight monsters. The dialogue is funny and in line with the goofiness of older point and clicks. You control the team, but your main character is Dalain, a fighter/melee type. After a pretty cool opening cinematic, you find yourself with your adventurers in a dark cave. You have to walk around and pick up items, figuring out how to get a crate and a door open in hopes of arming your team against foes you can see ahead in the distance.

What I like about the game—also something that frustrated me while I was playing—is that the game is not idiot proof. I wandered around the cavern for awhile before I figured out all the items I could pick up. Then I opened the door and fought the skeleton and promptly died. I died many times in that first bout. What I needed to do what put the stones into the hands of my team so that we could hit harder and down the skeleton faster. A little dialogue box didn’t pop up to help me; there were no game guides up online. I struggled through the game, and I freaking LOVED it. I enjoy difficult games having help throughout, but I also like games that are challengingly intuitive. This certainly fits the bill.

I am just shocked that a single developer made this game. The animation is good, the gameplay is balanced, the writing is funny, and it is pleasingly challenging. I’m already at a point that I have tried several times but can’t beat. I can’t wait to go back and try again so I can earn my way past it. That’s one of the things that is compelling about those older games, though, so it’s a fun struggle, a nostalgic struggle.

Are we ready in the games community for a resurgence of older games? I think we might be. I would like to see if developers have the skill to update game graphics and such without taking away the essence of what made the games compelling. Sometimes I think the pull of sexy graphics, the ability to play online, and the enormity of making a AAA game takes away from the game in the end. It limits creativity because devs have to go with what is a “sure thing.” This isn’t always true, of course, but I certainly hope that Dwarf Run signals things that are to come!